Love is in the Air

I keep saying that I am going to make a list of all of the weddings that Dave and I have attended.  I swear it must now be close to 4,729.  Just when I think every last one of our friends has been married off, we have another year like this with 8-10 weddings.  This weekend begins our 5 weddings in 7 weeks stint. 

Don't get me wrong, I still find weddings to be inspirational and magical.  It is fun to see what everyone decides to do to make their special day unique.  Next weekend our dear friends Sara and Mike will be getting married, I am a bridesmaid, Samantha will be a flower girl and Dave will be officiating.  It is truly a family affair honoring their love and commitment.  

Did you know Dave officiates weddings? He will be officiating his 3rd and 4th weddings in the next few weeks.  I'm thinking next wedding season we will create a business and start charging for our involvement. 

Life is a Sum of All Your Choices

I've always been taught that life is all about choices.  If you aren't happy, if you want to take on a new challenge or if you faced with a dilemma, there are always a variety of choices available and you are in control of making the choice.

I read an interesting blog post yesterday about David Sedaris' Four Burners Theory.  The idea is that the four burners represent your family, your friends, your health and your work.  According to the theory, in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. 

The idea is not that you can’t have all four, even at once: it’s that you can’t have an exceptional level of all four at once. You cannot put in the time required to raise children properly and nurture outstanding friendships of depth and be an elite athlete and win the Nobel prize in chemistry. Because to be outstanding at any one thing requires an outstanding level of focus on that thing.

Definitely an interesting thing to ponder.  I can't quite get this idea out of my head.  I've been doing my best to have exceptional levels of all four.  I do my best to be an encouraging and supportive mother, wife, daughter and sister.  I exercise and watch what I eat, try to spend time in meditation doing yoga. I work hard trying to come up with innovative ways to do my job and move the business forward.  And for Dave and I, our friendships remain at the center of our lives.  All four are certainly important to me.  I'd like to think that I have support in each area to make it all possible.  But perhaps trying to "have it all" is unrealistic. 

Don't Tell Uncle Brian

In this video, Samantha talks dogs and sports. 


You can also see photos of her fantastic 2nd birthday party here.  She had so much fun!

I Get It

On the fourth of July, I had a "moment" that took me back to my sophomore year of college.  That wild year I turned 20, I lived in a big house on The Hill in Boulder with my best friend Ryan and four boys.  There was never a dull moment in the house, we were once even shown on an MTV show about underage parties on college campuses.  After a particularly raucous party I was sitting on our front porch the next afternoon when I saw a determined woman leave her house from across the street.  She was on a mission and I was her target.  Of course this was probably the only time throughout the entire year that I was the only person at the house so I was the sole recipient of her angry tirade.  She did not hold back and boy did she yell!  She told me that next time we have a party and wake her two kids up at 2 am, we would be getting a wake up call of our own when her kids wake up at their regular time of 6 am. For the rest of the year I was petrified of her.

Flash forward to this year.  Samantha and I went home from a 4th of July party at Josh's house and left Dave to continue the celebration.  It was pouring rain so we decided not to keep Samantha up for fireworks as we had originally planned.  I put Samantha to bed and was enjoying a mellow night at home reading my book.  Fireworks make our dog insane and every noise he heard set him off into a barking frenzy.  I tried everything, turned on the TV, locked him in our room but nothing worked. And, throughout it all I called to yell at Dave about all the barking.   Then, around 10:30 pm I could hear more and more fireworks being shot right outside of our window.   I knew I didn't have much time before all the barking woke Samantha.

I walked outside to see a whole crew of people shooting off fireworks one after another in our street.  As I was debating whether to go give them a talking to or to call the police, Dave saved the day and pulled up to take the dogs back to the party with him.  As I got back into bed with my book,  I thought of that woman across the street yelling at me 12 years ago, I understand now that being protective of your children makes even the most calm people crazy.